


Meerkats

by PumpkinWrites



Category: RWBY
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Family, Fluff, M/M, Modern AU, Multi, Penny's a nuts and volts baby, Polyamorous WTH
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:00:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23525002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PumpkinWrites/pseuds/PumpkinWrites
Summary: There’s no one other than the cat in the living room, though, which is only a little odd: they spend plenty of time in Penny’s room, after all. He puts the groceries up quickly, the ones that belong in the kitchen, anyway, and makes his way upstairs with the rest, the lack of noise coming from the upper floor concerning him even more. He should hear… something. Tyrian and Hazel talking, if nothing else.
Relationships: Hazel Rainart/Arthur Watts, Tyrian Callows/Arthur Watts/Hazel Rainart
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	Meerkats

He’d texted the others when he’d gotten home, trying to get them to come out and help with the groceries, but hadn’t gotten a response, and, frankly, could handle them himself. It’s one of their canvas grocery bags, not six or so. So it’s fine. He’s sure they’re preoccupied with the baby. Or she’s napping and their phones are on silent: not only is she responding to sounds now, but she also looks for where they’re coming from, and sometimes if a sound wakes her up, she’ll be inconsolable until she sees the source of it.

None of them have been out of the house very much since the baby had come along. Penny is just such a small, fragile little thing, none of them really trust her to be out of their sight very long, especially not with her laundry list of health concerns, and she’s still about a month too young to have any of her vaccinations yet, let alone an allergy test, so she doesn’t leave the house very much. They’ve even had trouble leaving her with Tyrian’s mother -- she mostly raised Tyrian, of course. And it’s not because they don’t trust her, never that. They just don’t want Penny out of their sight. Thankfully, she understands: she was a new parent once too, she more than understands. And Tyrian gets his protectiveness mostly from her, after all.

Tyrian and Hazel have been home with her all day, but they had  _ desperately _ needed some groceries that just couldn’t wait until their usual grocery night. Tyrian had been feeling under the weather for nearly a week, and Hazel refused to leave him alone, especially with the baby, so it had fallen to Arthur to run out for groceries after work. It’s just a few things, milk, toothpaste, shampoo, disinfectant  _ and _ baby wipes, other things that they hadn’t realized they were running low on, or things they didn’t quite realize how quickly they ran through them. He’s even picked up a few frozen things, though those are mostly emergency food. Between the three of them,  _ someone _ usually feels up to cooking, or there would be leftovers to reheat, or Salem would visit with food or stop by and make dinner for them. Once in a while, it’ll be takeaway or delivery. Frozen food has always been such a rarity for them.

He nudges open the door, the cat loudly and immediately sounding her alarm, but it cuts off when she realizes it’s her human. She’s an efficient security system, sort of. As a supplement to the one they  _ have _ , anyhow.

There’s no one else in the living room, though, which is only a little odd: they spend plenty of time in Penny’s room, after all. He puts the groceries up quickly, the ones that belong in the kitchen, anyway, and makes his way upstairs with the rest, the lack of noise coming from the upper floor concerning him even more. He should hear…  _ something _ . Tyrian and Hazel talking, if nothing else. He maintains his even pace until about halfway up the stairs, where he speeds up, taking them two at a time as his anxiety heightens. He drops the grocery bag at the top, rushing for Penny’s room first. He opens the door and…

… she’s not in there. No one is. Her crib is empty.

Alright. Alright, don’t panic, there’s other rooms. The door to his office is closed, none of them would go in there anyway, not without him at home. The upstairs bathroom door is open, the light is off. He doesn’t hear any water running: presumably no one’s in any of the showers or at any of the sinks. Alright… alright, there’s… there’s still the master bedroom and its ensuite bathroom, and the den, and the entirety of downstairs, and the whole back yard. Was Hazel’s truck here when he pulled in? He can’t recall at the moment. Could they have gone somewhere? No, surely they would have texted him, or left him a  _ note _ at the very least…

He rushes for the master bedroom, but a quiet sound from the den turns his head in the direction of its door as he passes, and he shoulders open the door far more roughly than he normally would.

There they are. They’re right there on the sofa. Tyrian curled up and practically melting into Hazel’s side, out cold, the fleece throw blanket off of the back of the sofa tucked tightly around him: did Hazel tuck him in when he fell asleep? Hazel’s fallen asleep as well, sitting partially up against the back of the sofa, not curled up into a ball like Tyrian. And Penny’s resting against Hazel’s chest, asleep, just like the others. The television is on, playing an episode of Black Mirror very,  _ very _ quietly with the captions on, that’s why he hadn’t heard it at first. Really, he only knows what program it is because he’s seen the whole series at this point, so has Tyrian. It’s been a favorite for family rewatches for quite some time.

The worry shatters away and the doctor can just  _ feel _ his heart melting. Oh, they all look so peaceful, asleep like this. And Penny just looks so  _ tiny _ in Hazel’s arms. Granted, Penny  _ is _ tiny, small for her age, and every member of the family looks small compared to Hazel, but neither of these points makes the sight in front of him any less endearing.

He’ll never admit it unless he’s found out, but he absolutely takes a couple of quick pictures from the door before he tucks his phone away, closes the door back over, and finishes putting things away. Laptop and bag back in his office, the last of the groceries in the closet in the master bathroom. When he doesn’t hear the others stirring, he pokes his head back into the room, just in time to see the screen crack over the credits of the next episode.

Hazel’s awake now, it seems, because he turns his head toward the door and gives Arthur a rather lazy smile, before he tosses his head toward the empty spot on his other side. He doesn’t say anything, and it’s probably better that he doesn’t: as quiet as he is, his voice is deep enough that the rumble of it in his chest would probably wake Penny if he spoke up loud enough for Arthur to hear across the room. Penny is a very good sleeper, she usually needs to be roused for night feedings, she doesn’t normally wake up on her own for them, but waking her when they don’t have to is still not a risk  _ any _ of them are willing to take.

Arthur beams a little, wanders closer and settles on Hazel’s other side, to avoid jostling Tyrian and waking him up. He needs his rest too. He’s more often the one that goes running if Penny cries for any reason, and more than once, Arthur’s caught him awake and sitting in Penny’s room, just watching her sleep. Not that he isn’t equally guilty of it, though. Hazel’s the only one getting anything close to a full night’s sleep around here and even  _ he _ isn’t sleeping a full eight hours. He hasn’t quite devolved into needing to watch the baby sleep to make sure she doesn’t suddenly stop breathing, start seizing, or something equally worrisome.

“Hello there, you,” he greets quietly, smiling as he sits down and settles close to Hazel’s side, resting his head on his shoulder for a brief moment before turning his head up to give Hazel a kiss. “Tyrian finally talked you into watching the family favorite?”

“Mm.”

“Enjoying yourself?”

“Mmhm.”

He chuckles, letting himself relax for just a moment before he shifts back and holds his arms up slightly, crooking his fingers in a little. “I believe it’s my turn with that baby.”

“Hmm, dunno,” Hazel chuckles, and the rumble of it shakes them both, probably Penny too, but she doesn’t wake up. “Think she’s pretty happy where she is.”

“Come now, it’s enough of a production to get Tyrian to let go of her, I don’t plan on arguing with you too.” Arthur straightens up a little bit more, carefully plucking Penny off of Hazel’s chest and bracing her against his own, sitting back and smiling down at her once he’s got them both settled. “Hello, darling…”

On the screen, there’s a woman screaming and searching frantically for what Arthur knows to be her three-year-old daughter, and he glances up at the sound of it. He feels his face shift down into something worried. Hazel shifts an arm to rest around Arthur’s shoulders. “… what’s on your mind?”

“Mm? Oh, nothing.” He’s turned his attention back to Penny, but he still looks… noticeably worried. He’s not sure if he’s hiding it well, or at all, really. “Nothing.”

“Arthur.”

Apparently he isn’t. He sighs quietly, reaches up and shuffles Penny around a little, settles her a bit more solidly in place. He decides not to tell Hazel, at the moment, about his frantic search of the house for them when he’d gotten home, and simply nods to the screen, where the screaming mother is now calm, and watching her daughter be implanted with a sort of tracking device. “This one used to be one of my favorites. But now… it’s a bit more anxiety inducing. Conceptually. You know.”

Hazel doesn’t say anything. Arthur glances at him, finds him looking expectantly down at him, waiting for him to keep going, and he does.

“… I’ve been worried about her since the first pregnancy test came back positive. … well, the third, actually, there… were a number of home tests before we went in for the blood test.” A beat. He nudges one finger against Penny’s hand, smiles a little when she grabs onto it. Even in her sleep, her grip’s surprisingly strong for an underweight little preemie whose parents are doing their damnedest to catch her up to where she needs to be and consistently falling short of the mark. “I… daresay I’m  _ just _ the sort of person who’d go mad for that type of system if it existed.”

“Nah. Y’not that bad.”

Arthur manages a bit of a laugh. “… I’d say Tyrian would be too, but that’d require him to put her down and let her learn to walk enough to wander away from him without help. Though we’re all a little guilty of spoiling her like that.”

“Mm. Yeah, you are.”

“I said  _ we _ .”

“Y’did.” Hazel kisses the side of the doctor’s head. “Y’re both just protective.”

“… of course. You’re right.” Penny wiggles around against her mother’s chest, and Arthur startles a little, looking down just in time to see her blink those sleepy green eyes open and yawn. “Oh, did we wake you, pretty girl?”

Penny, of course, doesn’t answer him. She’s not precisely capable of it, really. Most infants don’t even say their first word until around six months, but they can be, and often are, quite noisy in other ways at Penny’s age: they’re sort of “testing out” their voices and other sounds. Of course, some start talking earlier, some later, but a large percentage of them are at least babbling by now. Penny, however, is a very quiet baby. He isn’t  _ entirely _ sure whether he should be worried about that. Tyrian doesn’t seem to be.

He distracts himself from the notion that they may be doing something catastrophically incorrect, or that there might be something wrong with Penny that they’re not seeing properly. “When’s the last time someone fed her?”

“B’fore we started watchin’ Black Mirror.”

“Specific.” He braces Penny against his chest and wiggles toward the edge of the sofa to stand up with her. “I’m going to feed her and start dinner.”

“Need some help?”

“No, no. You stay here. Tyrian’s leeching your body heat. He needs it. And the nap, honestly.”

“He’s got a blanket.”

“And he’s got you.” Once he’s gotten to his feet, Arthur leans to give Hazel a quick kiss. “I’ll come get you both when dinner’s ready.”

“Alright. Text if you need me.”

“Of course, dear.”

**Author's Note:**

> Did you know meerkats are known for sleeping in piles?
> 
> Modern au? Polyamorous WTH? Human baby Penny? No one should be surprised, I'm too attached to these aus.
> 
> Yes, Arthur is referred to as Penny's mother, there are reasons for this. This is not a typo. This was yoinked partially from my aus with atlesianic.
> 
> Also, speaking of atlesianic, y'all can blame this man for them watching Black Mirror, he inflicted it on me in a way that didn't make me paranoid about it anymore. The episode described is "Arkangel."


End file.
